Letter 6027: Gregory to the presbyters, deacons, and clergy, nobles and people, dwelling at Jadera, and who have communicated with the prevaricator Maximus. It has come to my knowledge that some of you, deceived by ignorance or under compulsion, have communicated with those who, their fault as you know requiring it, have been deprived of communion by the Apo...

Gregory to Januarius, Bishop of Cagliari. It has come to my attention that certain people in your city who converted from Judaism are being burdened unjustly by those who claim debts from them, using the occasion of their conversion to oppress them. This is intolerable. If these people owed anything before their conversion, let it be paid fairly. But if new demands are being invented to punish them for converting, your Brotherhood must put a stop to it immediately. Converts must not be made to regret their decision through financial persecution.

Book VI, Letter 27 To the Clergy and People of Jadera. Gregory to the presbyters, deacons, and clergy, nobles and people, dwelling at Jadera, and who have communicated with the prevaricator Maximus. It has come to my knowledge that some of you, deceived by ignorance or under compulsion, have communicated with those who, their fault as you know requiring it, have been deprived of communion by the Apostolic See, but that others, with wholesome discretion, have under the Lord's protection abstained; and as much as I rejoice in those that have been constant so much do I groan for those who have gone astray, since they have partaken of the mysteries of holy communion, which have been granted to us by Divine loving-kindness for absolution, rather to the detriment of their souls. And because (as I pray Almighty God to make known to you) I earnestly and from the bottom of my heart sympathize will your Charity, I adjure and entreat you with fatherly affection, that every one of you abstain from unlawful communion, and altogether shun those whom the Apostolic See does not receive into the fellowship of its communion, lest any one should stand guilty in the sight of the eternal Judge from that whereby he might have been saved. Moreover I have discovered that certain men of perverse mind in your parts have tried to insinuate that I am moved against Maximus by some grudge, and that I desire to carry out not what is canonical, but what anger dictates. But far, far be this from the priestly mind, that it should be moved in any cause by private animosity. But as for me, it is as taking thought for the people dwelling in those parts and for my own soul, and as fearing the judgment of Almighty God, that I wish to have the cause of this Maximus enquired into, and, God showing me the way, to decide canonically. Now, inasmuch as I have written to him frequently that he was not to celebrate the sacred solemnities of mass until I had been able to obtain knowledge of his case, he would in any case be deprived of communion; and now his sin of pride is openly shown from this — that, having (as I have said) been often admonished to come to us, under various excuses he refuses, he shuns, he fears coming. What then is he afraid of, if his conscience does not accuse him with regard to the things that have been said? Since then you know these things, now that you can make no excuse on the plea of ignorance, I beseech, I exhort, I warn you, that you altogether refrain from fellowship with forbidden communion, and that not one of you presume, against his own soul, to communicate with any priest who communicates with the above written Maximus. Since however I hear, as I have said before, that some of you fell in ignorance, and that some were even driven by force to communicate, I implore the Almighty Lord, that He would keep with His perpetual protection, and answer with His wished for bounty, those who have given no assent to this iniquity; and as to those whom either party spirit, or ignorance, or any other cause soever, has drawn into a fault, that He would absolve them from all guilt of their sins, and from all implication in the liability of others, and both give them all the grace of His protection in the present life, and grant to me to rejoice for them in the eternal country. Wherefore, that this intercession may avail for you with God our Saviour, show obedience to our exhortations for the good of your souls, and receive the holy communion from those whom you know to have abstained, and to abstain still, from communion with the aforesaid Maximus.

Gregorius Candido * episcopo de urbe veteri ma- jore. lndicavit nobis ſraternitas tua se non habere pres- B byteros, et ex hac causa necessitatem non F1%H modicam sustinere. Et quia in quibusdam mona=- £l{eriis in Sua parochia conslitutis quosdam esse mo=- nachos perhibet qui ad hoc apti possint esse offi- cjum, et eos se cum nostra auctoritale ad hunc pos= tulat ordinem promovere , propterea prxsentibus vobis licentiam damus epistolis monachos de mona- Steriis in tua parochia positis cum consensu abbatis Sui tollere , et. presbyteros ordinare. Sed iNlud pre omnibus es1tote s0lliciti, nt vitam actusque eorum qui in hoe sunt officio conslituendi subtiliter debea- tis inquirere, et tunc eos, si digni ſuerint, ordinare. Si vero aliqua in eis culpa claruerit quz eos ad hunc ordinem canonica prohibitione provehi non permit= lat, nullius vobis supplicatio aut gratia pers0ne ut non prius sacra missarum solemnia celebraret C 8nbrepat, ut talibus debeatis manum imponere, ne, quam causam £ejus potuissemus agnoscere , alioquin esset communione privatus ; et ex hoc jam superbize ipsius culpa in- aperto monstratur, quod, szpius, sicut dixi, admonitus ut ad nos veniret , diversis excusationibus renititur, reſugit, metuit. Unde ergo trepidat, si eum de his quz dicta sunt conscientiia non accusat? lac ergo cognoscentes, postquam Yo- bis nullam de ignorantia excusalionem assumere poteslis , rogo, hortor et moneo, ut a prohibi!z vos communionis consortio per omnia suspendatis, nec cuiquam Sacerdoti suprascriplo Maximo communi=- canti contra animam sSuam quisquam veslrum com= municare presumat. Quia tamen audio , sicut prexfatus sum, quosdam quod alsit, hic honor, et jillis pena, et yobis inci- piat esse peccatum Þ.